Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians was discharged from an Indianapolis hospital Wednesday and says he is "feeling fine," but he plans to rest a few days before interviewing for head coaching vacancies.

One of those vacancies is in Berea at 76 Lou Groza Blvd. According to multiple reports, the Browns have wanted to interview Arians since last week, but he was off limits at the time because the Colts were preparing for their wild-card playoff game vs. the Ravens last Saturday.

Arians, 60, was sent to a Baltimore hospital the morning of the game and treated for an inner-ear infection and elevated blood pressure. He was discharged Monday, returned to Indianapolis and then on Tuesday was hospitalized again. This time all seems well.

"I'm home," Arians told Indystar.com. "They let me out and I'm feeling fine. I'm ready to get back at it."

Advertisement

If Arians thought staying in a hospital was exhausting, he is going to be downright bushed after next week when the interviews are expected to begin. The Browns, Chargers, Bears and Eagles all are waiting to meet with Arians, who won nine games as the Colts' interim coach while Chuck Pagano was treated for leukemia. The Chargers might have an inside track because on Wednesday they hired Tom Telesco, the Colts' vice president of football operations, as their new general manager.

Meanwhile, the Browns were busy interviewing two more candidates Wednesday at team headquarters, according to sources.

Chudzinski has had two turns as an assistant coach with the Browns. He was tight ends coach under Butch Davis in 2004 and left to take the same job with the Chargers in 2005 when the Browns went through another coaching change. He returned to Cleveland as Browns offensive coordinator under Romeo Crennel in 2007 and was on the move again after 2008 when Crennel was fired.

The 2007 season was the most improbable and successful season the Browns experienced since 1999. They won 10 games and Derek Anderson, who wasn't even the starter in the season opener, passed for 3,787 yards and threw 29 touchdown passes with Chudzinski directing the offense.

Everything went south the next season. Chudzinski had the same playbook, but point production fell from 402 points to 232. The Browns did not score an offensive touchdown in the final six games.

"Chud" went back to San Diego to coach the Chargers tight ends and wear the title assistant head coach. From there, he went to Carolina as the Panthers' offensive coordinator in 2011.

Chudzinski had immediate success with Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. As a rookie in 2011, Newton threw 21 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions. The Panthers were 6-10. They were 7-9 in 2012 when Newton threw 19 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions. He ran for 14 touchdowns as a rookie and eight last season. He fumbled 10 times in 2012 compared to five last season.

Chudzinski was born and raised in Toledo. When he was here in 2004, he recalled playing football in the front yard as a youngster. He would turn the living room television around so the screen was facing the window when the Browns were televised and he and his friends pretended they were playing for the Browns.

Last year, Chudzinski interviewed for coaching vacancies in Tampa Bay, St. Louis and Jacksonville.

Zimmer, 56, has long been considered head coaching material. He has coached in the NFL since 1994. He has been with the Bengals since 2008. This past season the Bengals finished sixth in the league defensively and made the playoffs the second straight year.

The Bengals posted a team record 51 sacks in 2012. Zimmer prefers a 4-3 defense, which the Browns played for two years under Pat Shurmur.

Forty of the sacks came from the defensive line. Tackle Geno Atkins had 12.5 sacks and end Michael Johnson has 11.5 sacks. But the player Zimmer tamed, second-year end Carlos Dunlap, is Zimmer's latest success story. Dunlap had a reputation of doing things his own way until Zimmer made him see the light of a team-first concept.

"I figured one of us was going to lose the fight, and it wasn't going to be me," Zimmer told reporters in Cincinnati before the Bengals lost to the Texans in a wild-card game last week. "They're much easier to mold the way you want them molded when they're young rookies. Michael was not as bad as Carlos. Carlos was a guy that had to be pushed, confronted, threatened at times, not let play at times.

"Either they figure it out or they don't figure it out, one way or the other. Both those two guys are smart guys. I do think they understand that you're trying to help them as opposed to trying to ridicule them or something like that."

Zimmer would not be a yes-man just to please someone, including a team owner, which might explain why no one has hired him as a head coach.

In other news, another college coach named Kelly -- Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly -- has thrown his visor in the coaching candidate ring. Kelly interviewed with the Eagles after the Fighting Irish were embarrassed by Alabama in the BCS championship game Monday night, according to Chris Mortensen of ESPN. The Eagles plan to meet with Kelly again after he returns from a brief vacation. It is not known whether the Browns plan on interviewing Kelly.

Last week, the Browns and Eagles interviewed Chip Kelly, but Kelly turned them both down to return as head coach of the Oregon Ducks.